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KARACHI: Karachi was ranked among the world’s most polluted cities on Saturday as gusty winds lashed the city and turned the weather dusty.
According to Air Quality Index (AQI), Karachi was ranked the third most polluted city with a rating of 224 US AQI considered as ‘Very Unhealthy’. The pollution level is currently 34.7 times above the WHO’s annual air quality guideline value.
The situation is expected to improve by tomorrow (Sunday, Jan 23) when the AQI will be around 95 considered as ‘Moderate’. Karachi was followed by Lahore which recorded 190 AQI considered ‘Unhealthy’. The most polluted city in the world was Dhaka, Bangladesh (279 AQI), and Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan (275 AQI).
At least five people were killed in separate incidents of wall and roof collapse in Karachi on Friday as powerful winds battered the city. The Met Office said that strong winds were blowing in the city from the west at 25-30 knots (1kn equals 1.852 kilometres per hour) as the result of a “steep pressure gradient”.
The Met Office also issued a weather advisory stating that Sindh, including Karachi, was likely to experience a “mild cold wave” between January 22 and January 27. During this period, the advisory said, night temperatures in most cities of Sindh were expected to drop to around four to six degrees Celsius and in Karachi to eight to sine degrees Celsius.
It added that weather was likely to remain cloudy and there were chances of light rain in Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Larkana, Jacobabad, Kashmore, Shikarpur and Qambar-Shahdadkot. The advisory said dry weather, cold nights and foggy mornings would be experienced in plain areas elsewhere in the province.